Well, after much research, i've narrowed the choice down to these two models. However, although ive read good reviews on the Sony, i havent been able to find that many on the Panasonic and the one i did find wasnt very clear!
So i was hoping i could ask anyones opinion on whether they think the Panasonic model is worth the extra £150 on the Sony. (This is assuming i get the sony for £600 and the Panasonic for £750, which i can do.)
I know the Panasonic is 3ccd etc but ive heard that its not so great for a 3ccd camcorder, but is it £150 better in quality than the Sony? Oh, and im not worried about its still-photo ability as i have a dedicated camera for that, so dont worry about telling me the differences on that factor, i dont really care!
thanks very much


oh, p.s. i'm not just someone coming on here cos im too lazy to do anything else, i have read up as much as i can find over the last couple of months and so do have a reasonable knowledge of things - if any of you could post their views, it would be much appreciated!

[afleming]

i bought a gs70 recently over a sony for a couple of reasons. although reviews are scarce there are quite a lot of users out there who have posted opinions. and most of them are quite favourable. the issues are the sony has a higher resolution but a slightly different colour performance that some perceive to be not as vivid as that on the panasonic. Resolution is not deemed to be as important as colour as when you watch on a tv the resolution is crap anyway but the colour is noticeable.
I personally preffered the panasonic's design and think the ergonomics are very good. I chose against the sony because of its touch screen especially as in bright sunlight i should imagine it is difficult to see. The panasonic has hard controls under the lcd screen. (some have criticised this as they say that if you want to conserve battery power you have tio open the flap well that is nitpicking to me.

Also a key factor for me was that panny use sd card and sony use memory stick. sd cards are cheaper and my laptop has a built in sd slot which makes life easy for me.

still shots are crap and you would be better to not even get your hopes up about this and just buy a stills camera. but i believe that they are equally crap on most camcorders anyway so this is not an issue.

the tape compartment on the panny is behind the handgrip so if you are using a tripos you can change tapes with not too much problem, however the sony has a tape compartment on the bottom necessitating interfereing with the tripod attachment

the panny comes with a full remote and a cable remote and mic that you can use when filming so that you can shoot with hand and control functions with another also you can use this as a mic.

one observation so far is that the microphone that is built in is not very sensitive on the panny, but that may be me.

The leica lens is basically like grolsch you buy in the uk. has the name but is not made by the name only under licence.

having said that leica and the sony's zeis lens are both good and people debate about whether zeiss or leica lenses are better till the end of dawn. personal preference.
However i am impressed by the natural colours of the gs70.

If you expect to be able to shoot shots that are as good as what you see on television etc it wont happen but for perfectly good every day recording it is a good camera.

the motornoise is quiet and doesnt come out on the recording.
also their is a hotshoe to attach an external mic or light.

the electronic stability is ok but you really have to practice smooth shooting. I dont mind this as it is easy to blame your equipment for shoddy results. However if you are carefull and use two hands you can achieve steady shots. I sometimes wish i had bought the more expensive mx5000 but that was another wedge of money and you have to draw the line somewhere.

I have also enjoyed reading and learning about manual settings which i am going to experiment with. I dont believe the sony has the level of manual adjustments that can be made.

just my oppinion and am quite happy so far.

Just one thing when i shoot on auto mode i notice very occassional and brief contrast shifts that happen only briefly. Is this a feature of auto modes or is there something more to this. This is only a slight issue as i have noticed it twice.

thanks very much I think from what ive read around, the Panasonic isnt really worth the extra money - the differences seem to small to me and as you say, you have to draw the line somewhere with the money (plus the fact that i want to buy an external light/mic and that money would be better spent instead of on the Pan camcorder).

But does anyone else have any other opinions or hard comparisions between the sony footage quality or the panasonics?

thanks

[TommyVecetti]

Personally i'd go for a 3 ccd camera over a single ccd camera any day of the week.

The Panasonic is the one I'd go for.


Nice picture and specs here:

http://www.techtronics.com/uk/shop/8...camcorder.html

[MartinImber]

Is this the cheap Panasonic with the bad reviews - current Camcorder User has both units tested in it.

The TRV33 is very good for a sigle CCD

[afleming]

can you buy a tape and record five mins from each camera. do you have a jessops etc in your area i'm sure they will let you do this. when you view back make sure that your monitor or tv has been set to a neutral or at least to your likeings.

if you cant do this then i will tape five minutes and send you the tape and see if martin imber can do this as well. the exact conditions will be different but we could agree to do 2 mins outside on auto, 2 mins inside at midday on auto and two mins when we have manually selected the white balance and two mins on manual settings etc. i wouldnt mind doing this for you.

as long as you can view the tape on something.
Magazines are good to use as guides but do not buy on their verdict. the camcorder user review i happen to disagree with several of their comments as they are commenting on issuses which i feel are subjective rather than objective. I dont know if this is still the case but is suspect it is that magazines get a nice junket for their team of writers for a favourable review and also a nice back cover is going to garner a favoured oppinion. fact is that to remain absolutely imprtial these publications should not take advertisements from reviewed products. rather like arnie schwarzennegers films cant be shown in californian while he is standing for office as it offers an unfair bias.

thanks very much for your offer - you're right about the camcorder mags, i did hear someone say that one of them is very partial to sony camcorders.. :S
I have spent a long time reading through peoples opinions on the web and asking around in shops and have decided to go for the Sony. My reasons are because (and these are all personal ones, to what i want) 1)The sony has the 16:9 anamorphic widescreen mode 2) The picture quality isnt that much better in the Panny than the Sony to justify me spending £150 extra on it. 3) I want to buy a whole load of extras like an external light and longer lasting battery, dv cable and possibly a good mic as well. £150 would go a long way to getting most of these and so id rather have the sony with some of the extras than just the Panny and one or two of them.
Thanks a lot though afleming, i made the decision today after spending lots of time in jessops and a sony and a panasonic shop, but if i was still stuck, id happily take you up on it.
ta

[MartinImber]

Laws of diminishing returns

There are steps on it, the TRV33 (when discounted) is at one of the steps.

If you want to well better it you have to spend quite a bit more!

A budget 3CDD is too near in cost would have to have some comprimises, however spend more and those comprimises go.

The main reason the world is going mad for the 33 is the excellent picture for the price and the anamorphic widescreen (for the price)

[TommyVecetti]

Originally posted by MartinImber
Is this the cheap Panasonic with the bad reviews - current Camcorder User has both units tested in it.

Where are the reviews? i was thinking of getting the panasonic myself.

Cheers

[MartinImber]

See the quote in the post above

[afleming]

i wish you the best with your new purchase. I am now trying to put into practice what everyone says that good and interesting content / footage is the main part. And you'll get some pretty good accessories. I myself am looking for a tripod and dont know whether to go for a cheapo own brand jessops ( are they adequate) or go for soemthing a little more robust?

cheers andy

[TommyVecetti]

Originally posted by MartinImber
See the quote in the post above

Erm yes, but is there nothing online? No offense but you need to back up claims of reviews with evidence that other can read here. There seems to be a worrying amount of praise at the moment for a particular sony model in this section and I think the balance needs to be redressed

[TommyVecetti]

Just been sufing around and found a very favourable review for the GS70 here:

http://www.dvspot.com/reviews/panaso...ew/index.shtml

The only downer seems to be the image stabilizer could be better, but it does say the the picture is very good for a 3CCD camera, better than a single chip machine.

So the moral of the story is people, be very wary of people on here who will give you an instant and biased recomendation, based on their own crtieria. Be prepared to look around and read some reviews.

[MartinImber]

I didn't have the magazine to hand - also I remember the Pana 3CCD was @ £900.

Personally I would rather pay £1200 for a 3CCD.

Whatever anyone says TRY IT YOUR SELF BEFORE BUYING!!

[MartinImber]

There seems to be a worrying amount of praise at the moment for a particular sony model in this section and I think the balance needs to be redressed

Fair enough - but this new widescreen mode is so good.

Also I do tend to buy well rated stuff before it gets tested - my receiver was excellent 4 years ago and I bought a first batch one!

Whatever I get I konw it won't last as long as my previous video camera - HVC4000P - I still use the recorder with the computer for transfering to DVD.

One thing I would say is don't buy blind - even though I have done it a couple of times with success.

[TommyVecetti]

I would also rather pay £1200 for a 3 CCD cam, but I think the selling point with the GS70 is that it is very small for a 3CCD camera, so it's more appealing from a size point of view if our into that kind of thing.

[SignalMan]

I've just bought the panny for £628 and allthough I'm a newbie it seems fine to me...(but what do I know). Nearly everyone seems to be putting this camera down for no reason at all, they've not tried it nor read any reviews !!. One minute peeps say "you can't beat a 3CCD camera" and then ??
"Minds are like parachutes; they work best when open."